Nativity Scene

This evening the community band I play in had our first of three performances for this Christmas season. We played at a Mormon meeting house (next to the Mormon Temple which I am told only Mormons' can enter) that had a display of nativity scenes from all around the world.

As people walked around looking at the displays, we played our repertoire of Christmas music that included some traditional pieces (O Christmas Tree, We Wish You a Merry Christmas) and some not tradtional (Somewhere in My Memory from the Home Alone Movie, Russian Christmas Music). We are playing Russian Christmas Music due to my request. I played it in high school and fell in love with the piece (do you remember it, SJ?).

The concert was nice, although it had some rough spots. We all hadn't played together in two weeks, and it kind of showed, at least to me anyways. And with me not feeling so hot either, I didn't play to my full potential either.

Afterwards, I walked through the absolutely beautiful displays. And I think I saw the world's smallest nativity scene, although the picture didn't come out too well. But this picture did.


And after putting up the Christmas tree at work today (why do I always end up getting stuck putting on the lights?), playing Christmas music and seeing these beautiful displays, I am definitely in the Christmas spirit now. Oh, that and NaBloPoMo is freaking over. Hallelujah. Amen.

I don't want to go to work, I want to go to Target

Ashley has been testing mine and Ray's patience over the past couple of days. Maybe it was the attention she received over Thanksgiving, maybe it was the head cold she has had, but whatever it is, I am done. First it was Monday night where she spent time screaming (and not normal screaming, more like a monkey in pain) when I was trying to unsuccessfully get her and Audrey to sleep at the same time. Then last night she woke up at 11:30 and would have nothing to do with Ray and screamed for me. She's not listening, she's whining over everything from dinnertime to watching tv, and she is just in general in a bad mood.

And now I have a head cold and can't handle too much more.

This morning Ashley woke up a few minutes before I left for work. I went into her room and told her it was a school day which she is normally super-excited about.

"I don't want to go to school", she replied.

"Why don't you want to go to school?"

"I want to go to Target."

That's my girl.

Christmas Decoration Related Injuries

The first Christmas Decoration Related Injury occured last night. Ashley was playing with her stocking when she pulled it and the stocking holder off the mantle to the top of her head. Thank goodness the cut was only superficial as I was not prepared to take her to an Urgent Care for stitches.


And alas, our Charlie Brown Christmas Tree.

My Favorite Things

In honor of Oprah's Favorite Things show today, here are my favorites things that I could not live without. And yes, I know Oprah redid how she is doing her show this year, but work with me.

First up are shoes. Since I do a lot of walking from my car to my office every day, I need a good pair of comfortable shoes that I can wear with everything. You heard it right, I tend to wear the same pair of shoes every day to work. And then with jeans on the weekends. I am weird, I know, but spending money on shoes is just not something I do. I do however own many flip flops. I would be in heaven if I could wear those everyday! Anyways, these are a pair of Nine West shoes. I actually have a pair of the Cloud 9 ones that I bought at an outlet store. Very, very comfy and they look similar to these.


Next up are jeans. I live in jeans on the weekends and you can't beat the price I paid for these this weekend. These are Levis Mid-Rise Boot cut and I bought them at Target. Yup, Target and they were on sale this weekend for $16. You can't beat that.


I need coffee most mornings due to the fact I have kids that like to get up at the crack of dawn. Ray and I used some coupons a couple of years ago at Bed, Bath and Beyond to purchase this rather expensive coffee maker. What we love about it is that it grinds and brews and is programmable. If only it would actually clean itself, fill itself back up with water, a filter and coffee, we just might use the programmable feature more often.


I am not a person who wears a ton of makeup. But I do need a little something since my face needs something to even out the skin. I found this stuff (again, at Target) and it is great. Not heavy, but does the job.


Last, but not least is my favorite baby product. And good grief, I bought this at Target too and it was only $19. It is a chair that attaches to a table for Audrey to sit in at restaurants (we wish we had this for Ashley). It is great because most high chairs at restaurants are dirty or they sit to low to the table. Plus, with this, Audrey can actually sit back and be comfortable. We can actually enjoy our meals.
Hope everyone enjoyed my list!

November is almost over

Thank God November is almost over and this posting every day thing is almost over. It's days like today where I would have not posted. We came home (thankfully only took us 3 1/2 hours this time), decorated our Charlie Brown Christmas tree (seriously, I'm not joking, I promise to take pictures this week), visited with friends, and went to the grocery store. We are just dead tired. Ashley has a pretty bad cold, in fact she fell asleep in the van on the way home this morning which is unheard of for her. Audrey still has a pretty bad cough, and we thought she was asleep at 7:45 tonight, but then she decided to wake up at 9:00 and be wide a awake for awhile. I just got her back to sleep. Anyways, I am just whining cause I'm tired.

I promise to catch up on everyone's blogs tomorrow - I have only had time to post the past couple of days. I look forward to reading about everyone's Thanksgiving tomorrow morning.

Good night...

Trip tomorrow, the vacation is over

More shopping and more food filled today. We made Ray's Dad take us to dinner since he won the pot in the poker game last night. I am not going to be surprised when the scale goes up instead of down on Monday...

I promise to post pictures of T-day and such next week. Next week starts the "month of events" where we have multiple things for each weekend and during the week. This coming week, I have a band concert on Thursday night to start it off. I am sure they will be tons of stories from all the things we have to do.

Tonight after dinner, we all trekked over to Target for some last minute things (jeans, chapstick, shoes for Audrey, where else would I go for this stuff?). Grandma Mocha (Ray's Mom) told Ashley she could get a book and some pj's. That of course turned into a search for items in the clothes section as Ashley loves shopping for clothes (I wonder where she gets that from??). Anyways, at one point she held up something and asked Ray if she could have it. Ray said no, it wasn't on sale. So from then on out, she kept holding up items and asking them if they were on sale. Ray's Mom about peed her pants. Which if she had, then I would have peed my pants laughing at her.

Tomorrow is our trip home, please, please pray that we don't have another 7 hour trip tomorrow!

I've Been Awake Way Too Long

I love shopping on Black Friday. Getting up at the crack o', joining the masses of people standing outside complaining about the 30 degree weather and plotting out their plans once they get in the store. This year my first stop was Kohl's where the only way to shop is to go with multiple people and have one person stand in the line to check out while the others continue to shop.

At that point at 5:00am, I had been up since 2:30am. Audrey had decided to wake up and refused to go back to sleep. So when the alarm went off at 4:15am, I was still awake and leaving Audrey with Ray to deal with. He got her back to sleep while I hurried off to shop.

And now we are gearing up for a pretty big poker game with Ray's family and his brother Sean's fiance's family (too much?). I am really not sure how long I am going to last...

Commercial

Turkey Dinner and all the trimmings - $200 trip to the grocery store
Time to eat the Turkey Dinner - approximately 12 minutes

Seeing your daughter play with her Great Grandmother who she is named after -

Priceless

From my family to yours, happy Thanksgiving.

Good God

What is normally a 3 1/2 hour trip took us SEVEN FREAKIN HOURS today. And honestly, the kids were great in the car. It was Ray and I that were frustrated beyond reason at the senseless delays on the highway. I just can't stand to sit in traffic anymore now that we have moved from Northern Virginia.

But we are here, in Virginia. Ready for some turkey and family time. I hope your day was better than mine.

I think I should starve myself the rest of the day to save up for tomorrow...

Sad

I was sad today to learn a blogging friend was leaving.

Look, even Ashley is sad.



But maybe she is really sad because tonight she is getting kicked out of her bed. We have friends stopping through on their way to visit relatives in Myrtle Beach. They have three kids plus their aunt is coming with them. I have no clue where all these people are going to sleep...

Pottery Stories and Linky-dinky-doo

So in my haste to get a post done last night, I forgot to share the story of the pottery place we went to yesterday in my girls' night out. Anyways, we walk into Crazy Glaze and lucky for us, one of the ladies with us had done it before. The place wasn't that big, there were maybe 8 tables of 4 set up around the room as well as a bigger table in the back that was having a kids birthday party at the time we showed up. So the manager lady gives us the rundown and continually apologizes for the "rowdy" group in the back. Honestly, I barely noticed them except for when they sang Happy Birthday. Three of us pick Christmas plates to do that had snowmen at the family members, so the manager lady knew we all had kids. She continues to come by and check on us and proceeds to call the kids in the back brats. We all kind of look at each other like this lady is nuts.

Upon leaving, my one neighbor asks if she is the owner, and she says no, she is just the manager. Man, if she was looking for us to have our kids birthday parties there, she is darn out of luck. I may just contact the owner and let her know of this manager's "service".

Linky Love - So to copy Silly Hily, I am also a Blog Whore. Check it out, and join us in all of our blogwhoringness.

Also, I keep forgetting to let everyone know, my MIL informed me that my stocking will be out on the deck this year. Which is fine, because what is important is that she loves my kids and they are first on the mantle. And yes, she really does love me as well. Even if my stocking will probably be filled with something other than presents.

Repetitive Pottery

This afternoon I met up with three other ladies who live on my street and went out for some time away from the kiddos. We went to a pottery place (which would not be something I would have picked to do, but it was fun) and painted pottery. One piece of advice for the pottery place, when they tell you that you think your piece is done, walk away. Don't do what I did and try to make it perfect and keep painting and painting until it looks cluttered. I did a Christmas plate with snowmen as all the members of the family. We then went to the Melting Pot for dinner. For those of you who haven't been to the Melting Pot, it's a fondue restaurant that is pretty yummy. I am not looking forward to my weigh in tomorrow morning.

Onto the repetiveness - lately it's been pretty relentless with Ashley. For example, today we went to Target and immediately upon entering the place, she states she wants to go to the toy section. So I calmly tell her we have to do our shopping first, then we will go to the toy section. Then it's, "I want to go now," or "But, I want to go to the TOOOYYYEEEESS." Non-stop until I have to raise my voice or threaten to not go look at the toys. Anyone else have a three year old who does this?? It is driving me nuts. I hate raising my voice and I hate losing my patience.

Christmas Shopping

I am easy to shop for, really I am. Get me a few scrapbooking items and I'm happy. And look what I found on Amazon, for all of us listmakers.

And I have officially purchased 3 presents. Go me. But I have plenty of lists for what to get.

Christmas Cards

So, I am totally stealing this idea, but I love Christmas time and getting and sending Christmas cards, so I am totally doing this.

If you would like to receive a Christmas card from me, just email me your address (click on my profile, it's in there, or if you are having issues, leave me a comment). I will only use your address for the Christmas Card, then I will put it in the shredder at work, I swear.

That's it, hopefully everyone is having a great Friday.

Wednesday was not good

So yesterday wasn't that great of a day. It started off with Audrey peeing on everyone's favorite striped chair that resides in my house. Lucky for us, we have stain protection, I just need to call.

Then I went home from work early to meet the washing machine repair guy. On Saturday, our 7 month old washing machine stopped working, the door wouldn't stay locked (we have a front loading machine). We did all things you would do to a computer, unplugged it, turned it on and off, waited 4 hours and checked it again. Still not working. So we called since it was still under warranty as did I mention it was only 7 months old? They could come on WEDNESDAY. Obviously these people do not have two kids, especially one three year old who is obsessed with her underwear and changes underwear multiples times a day (is that any insight as to what she will be when she grows up? A Victoria's Secret underwear model?). Anyways, the guy comes and as I am walking up the stairs with him, I am explaining the problem and how the door won't lock. We get into the laundry room and I shut the door to show him it won't work and the damn thing shuts and works. He just kind of looked at me like I was nuts.

Ashleyisms and the Non-Crawler

A few nights ago, I asked Ashley what rhymed with itch (I know, I know. I was asking for it. But I rarely think before I speak.) And of course she answered with bitch.

Yesterday, Ray let her jump on our neighbor's trampoline. My neighbor's son said he was jumping on his butt. She quickly responded she was jumping and falling on her cooch. I guess we need to talk to her about what is okay to say in public.

Last night, she was playing and Ray and I both heard her say something about killing someone. No idea where she got that, but Ray did a great job explaining to her what that word sort of meant (if you kill someone, they go away and don't come back).

Last night, we went to dinner at an italian restaurant in town. Ashley had to poop, so I took her and we set up in one of the two stalls in the bathroom. Of course, someone else came and occupied the other stall and got to hear Ashley narrate her experience.

"I am pushing the toots out now Mommy."
"I am trying to push theeee pppppoooooooopppps oooooouuuuutttttt."
"I Pooped!! I want to see it!"

Needless to say, I heard the lady laugh.

Audrey doesn't crawl like normal babies do. She sort of does the commando style sometimes or will just roll around to get what she needs. Every once in a while, she will do a tradition style, but it is few and far between. And more often than not, she goes backwards and normally ends up stuck somewhere.

Faith Restored

Ray's brother Sean, his fiance Crystal (yup, they up and got engaged) and Crystal's almost 2 year old daughter Faith are visiting for a few days. Last night, Faith was playing with Ashley's Dancing Dora doll that sings loudly and spins around. Audrey was not amused by this scary crazy dancing doll, so Sean picked it up and turned it off. Faith tried in vain to push the button to make it work and Sean told her it was broken. Ashley then piped up and said, "Sean, you turned it off." How observant of her, I had no idea she was paying attention. So much for lying to her and telling her stuff doesn't work. She knows there are on and off buttons (and batteries for that matter).

It's cute to see Faith try and do everything Ashley does.

Writing and Blogging

I read some pretty interesting and in depth blogs lately that wrote about why they blog and what has become of their blog. I had no idea what a blog was just 6 months ago. My family and I moved 4 hours away from our extended family, and I wanted a way for them to stay connected with the girls. My extremely computer saavy brother suggested a blog. And then he told me to go check out Dooce as an example. I know, great example (and like she really needs me to link her blog here).

I, like so many others out there, am wondering what my blog means now. I can tell you what I want it to mean - I want it to mean great new friendships. I want it to be something my kids to look back on when they are old enough and see what they did. I want my writing to express me and how I really am and what I really mean. I want those who read this to cry or laugh with me, whatever the case may be.

And I have made great new friendships, like with Life and Times of a Working Mom. I read religiously all the blogs on my blogroll and love, and I mean love, them all. I would link them all here in this post as I want everyone to know that I totally would leave my children with them, but my fingers would get tired and then I would get crabby and that's not pretty. And I do have things my kids can look back and read as long as blogger doesn't eat my posts. I think my writing is how I am, I haven't had those who see me everyday say otherwise.

Great, now I have no idea where I was going with this. I guess I just wanted to say I appreciate those who come here and read. I appreciate all the comments. I have no idea how many people visit my site daily because just don't understand all that stuff. (Seems that Mrs. CPA knows much more about computer stuff then me.) I hope I am at least entertaining to everyone at least once.

Sundays are for castle building

Today, Ray had to go to a walk thru for one of his clients. While there, Ashley decided that the three hour nap she took yesterday would suffice for yesterday and today and boycotted her nap. Which was fine since she was being good. Until she had to tell me something, then it was never ending:

"Mommy, did you see the castle I built?"
"Yes, Ashley, I see."
"Mommy, is that cool or what."
"Yup, cool."
"Mommy, can you look at the castle I made?"
"I already looked honey, I see it. Great job. Now Cinderella can take a nap."
"Moooommmy, come see the castle. Now."
After a deep cleansing breath, "Ashley, Mommy's right here, I see the tower, castle thing. Good, now build something else."
"Aww, I need help."

But she did okay without the nap. And yes, she is almost 3 1/2 and still naps. This is the girl who didn't sleep through the night until 18 months old, but she will probably nap until she's twenty. Now if I could only get them both to nap at the exact same time...

6 months

Our six month anniversary of living in North Carolina passed last month without a thought. In that six months, it feels like we have been here forever. It was so easy to settle here and it has definitely helped that everyone we've met, either in our neighborhood or at work, is friendly.

A little over six months ago we uprooted our young family (Audrey was only 3 months old when we moved) to move 3-4 hours away from the Grandparents. But the Grandparents have been great. They have all visited at least twice as well as the Uncles coming to visit. And we don't miss Northern Virginia at all. We don't miss the traffic, the obscene housing market (which has since crashed) nor the competitiveness of the area. It felt like everyone was trying to outdo everyone else, and it just was a crappy enviroment to be stuck in day after day.

The only we miss is our old backyard (actually just Ray misses it)...

Ashley's Christmas Pictures

Unlike my sister, I actually enjoyed my picture taking session and did not require a return trip. Maybe that will earn me extra presents from Santa.

Christmas in November

Hi, my name is Audrey and I am 10 months old. And all this Christmas stuff scares the living shit out of me. You keep putting me down next to a big freakin' tree with lights on it (isn't it going to catch on fire???) and I hate it.



Here we are two weeks later, and again, I don't like that tree you keep sitting me next to! And that red ball? What am I supposed to do with that? You won't let me put it in my mouth and it doesn't bounce, what good is it?

TAGGED

I was tagged by my wonderful blogging friend Michele and I am supposed to tell you 8 things about myself, so here goes:

1 - I really, really want to be a teacher.

2 - I love playing softball. I played softball in high school (made the varsity team my freshman year, but I'm not bragging or anything). I did not play in college because it was only a club level sport when I was at Virginia Tech (plus I am pretty sure I wasn't that good). My first job out of college I met a really good friend that played softball for the county league. It was slow pitch, but it was still softball. From there, I played a lot of softball. Ray traveled for 4 years in the beginning of our marriage, so I played 4 nights a week. But once Ashley came, I tried to go back and play, and it just wasn't the same. I once hit a homerun in a coed game (once again, not bragging), but after Ashley I couldn't even get the ball out of the infield. So now I just watch softball on tv.

3 - For those who don't know, I am a band geek as well. I play the bassoon in my town's community concert band. Our Christmas concert is December 15th if anyone wants to come.




4 - Ray and I will celebrate our ten year anniversary in less than 2 years, and I want to renew my vows in Disney World.

5 - A little insight into my extended family - my Mother-in-law hangs the Christmas stockings in order of favorites. My placement? At the end. After the almost dead cat and the dog.

6 - I could eat nachos for breakfast, lunch and dinner. No lie. I love Mexican food.

7 - My Mom is 50, and my Dad is 51. Yes, very young. And they both remarried people 10 years older than them.

8 - I took fertility drugs to get pregnant with Audrey.

That's it. I am glad I didn't have to come up with anymore, because I am out of things to tell you...

Wreck

Seems this fender-bender thing is contagious. Last night while leaving work, I thought the person in front of me had turned right into traffic. So I looked left and started to go. Well, she was still there. So I added to the already messed up bumper from last December when I pretty much did the same thing. Maybe we will actually get it fixed this time. Otherwise we will be the minivan driver that CPA Mom will be cussing because we are driving slow due to our front bumper being duct taped to the front of the van (and rightfully so).

This morning's drop off at daycare was awful. Thankfully, Ray normally does the drop off. But since he doesn't get home until late tomorrow morning, it's me to drop off. Audrey was pretty pissed that I was leaving her there. And I get to do it again tomorrow morning. What fun.

Update on my hired help - we did fire our cleaning lady that almost blew up our house (she didn't even apologize) and I hired my neighbors lady who will actually clean more things and is cheaper. Yea for me. And the curtains? I actually looked on Craigs list and found a SAHM that sews for extra money. If I provide the patterns and fabric, she will sew my curtains for a set price (much cheaper than $4,000!). And if I can help a fellow mom make some money, that's even better.

I of course can't get blogger to load my pictures of my bumper, so I will try in the morning. I have had a thrilling night of tears trying to get the girls to bed tonight, so I am off to bed myself. After watching Dancing with the Stars of course.

I am going to get a new job

We are in desperate need of some window treatments in my house. That, and Ray and I have absolutely no decorating sense, so we need the whole package, picking out fabric, picking the style of curtain, etc. So last week, we had a custom window treatment lady that lives in our neighborhood come out and give us a quote. Man, if I can make that much making curtains, I am quitting being an accountant and becoming a seamstress! For 4 rooms, the quote was over $4,000. And that's without installation of the curtains, she outsources that. Needless to say, I have now asked for a sewing machine for Christmas (did you know they sell them at Target? I had no idea.). I have the website of the patterns this lady does, so I can just order the patterns and somehow pick out some fabric. Here is a sample of one pattern we really like:




Looks easy, right?

Check this out

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 331 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

As common as my first and last name is, I am shocked there aren't more out there with my name. Oh, and I got to give credit to Jippy who recently stopped by my blog. And yes, this totally counts as a picture.

Things get wild when Daddy goes out of town...

Who out there is having a more exciting Saturday night??

I am home

I am back. I got home around 1:30pm, stopped off at Old Navy and Target to do some kid free shopping and then picked up the kids and went home. Of course with it getting dark at 5:00pm, the evenings tend to drag on and on. We were used to going outside every evening and letting Ashley play with neighbors or ride her bike. Instead, this evening we resorted to listening to kids' music I had downloaded on my itunes. Ashley loves that song by Imagination Movers, "I Want My Mommy." So our Friday night? Dancing on the furniture and counting down the minutes until bedtime...

We are some gassy people

Yesterday evening was pretty eventful at my house. We have a cleaning lady (yes, I am very lucky, and yes, she is actually pretty cheap. We pay her the same amount I made 10 years ago when I cleaned houses in Northern Virginia.). I guess I should say we had a cleaning lady. Ray came home yesterday evening to the house filled with gas. Somehow she had inadvertently turned on one of the gas burners on our stove. You could smell the gas across the street. So 911 was called and three fire trucks came to our houses. They showed up at the same time I was getting there from picking the kids up from school. Of course all the neighbors were out and we were the spectacle for the evening. They got it cleared out pretty quickly and we opened the windows until bedtime to get the rest of the lingering smell out. Ashley was kind of freaked out by the whole thing. But later at bedtime she was telling her stuffed animals their houses were filled with gas.

I have also joined the ranks of people doing the post an entry everyday this month. I am going to take it one step further and include a picture everday as well. Good luck to me.

And yes, I am in Charlotte and I am completely lonely and bored. I know one person at the meeting and everyone is about 10-15 years older than me (why, I have no idea). The entertainment for this evening? A Frank Sinatra impersonator. I think I would rather sit in my room and watch Survivor.

Some Pics

Here are some miscellaneous pictures from this weekend. The first is Ashley and my Stepmom Diane at Ashley's school on Friday. The middle picture is Audrey on Saturday at the parade on my street. And the last picture is me and Ashley with my neighbor and her daughter at our town's haunted house. We were waiting for a magician that never showed up.

Wendy, Matt and their son Ethan and Robyn, Chris and their son Keegan (friends of Wendy and Matt) came over to trick-or-treat on our street. We shoved pizza in the kids and out they went. Ashley did our street and came back and helped pass out candy. I think she actually enjoyed that more.

Right now, I am just in shock that it's freakin' November. Anyone else feel like this year has flown by?

Audrey and myself had a bad night. I put her to bed at 8:00pm only to have her wake up screaming at 10:40pm. Ray got her back to sleep and she woke up again at 11:40pm. I was up with her for awhile and couldn't get her to calm down. I was frustrated that I couldn't get her to sleep, I was frustrated that I didn't know what was wrong with her, and I was just plain tired. So when I am frustrated, I cry. And that didn't help Audrey go to sleep any faster. So Ray saved the day and we eventually dragged Audrey in bed with us. The problem with her that I finally figured out at 3:00am? She is cutting 4 teeth at once and must have Ray's tolerance for pain (which is pretty much nonexistent).

I hate it when I lose my patience and get frustrated. I feel so guilty afterwards. And to top off the guilt, I am leaving tomorrow morning for Charlotte and coming back Friday for work. What fun. And then Ray leaves Saturday for Phoenix for 5 days. Even more fun.